Laid back Laos

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Yesterday we left Cambodia and I for one am already missing it like crazy already. I just found a note from one of the kids in my bag and nearly burst into tears (mom says big surprise...).

Luang Prabang is like a breath of fresh air and the clean beds with real Lao silk blankets (not beach towels as they were in Cambodia) are a much welcome change. We all slept much better last night without the noise of funeral celebrations continuing on until two am with the Khumer music and a tone deaf man hogging the microphone. We definately won't be voting for him at the next Cambodian Idol.

This morning we left early for a two hour slow-boat ride up the Mekong River to see some Buddist caves. The boat ride was breath-taking, even in the rain. We visited a small hill tribe on the way to see the wiskey breweries, which is far less complicated than one might originally think. It involves cooking rice, rinsing, and storing in clay pots for one week, the rice is powdered and leaves are added for flavor before sitting for one more week.... voila! Rice wiskey. The locals like to put in snakes, geckos, scorpians and large centipeds into the wiskey bottles for healing purposes; you must be over forty to drink from the wiskey with the "added" flavor.

Today we sampled the real deal for lunch and they served us some traditional food. We had to be careful because they don't always understand when we try to explain mom's seafood allergies. And while some was very good other entrees may be an aquired taste.

After lunch we headed to a waterfall with amazing swimming holes (too bad we left our swimming gear at the hotel). The site also had a black bear rescue shelter housing eleven bears and one tiger. The tiger was quite shy and the bears are much smaller here than at home. Curtis and dad followed up the waterfall with a round of Badminton with our tour guide.

Mom and I went to the night market which is filled with fabulous textiles. I bought a funky light shade and mom bought a blanket and pillow cases for Curtis. We hadn't been at the market for ten minutes when it started to rain. There was only a few drops of water, but the women started frantically yelling at each other and running in all directions. They started packing up all of there things, and just when mom and I thought that they may be over reacting slighty, the torrential rain began. We should know better than to doubt the locals.

We head out on our Elephant trek tomorrow morning and we are all very excited. So far we have found the Lao people to be gentle and quiet. It is amazing how each Asian country we have been to we have noticed distinct differences in both the people and the landscape. We will have to work hard to be able to speak Lao as good as we were speaking Khumer in Cambodia.

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Photos

Slow-boat views
Only a few of the misty mountains visable on our trip up the Mekong

Mmmm wiskey
One of the creatures to which I was refering earlier...

An Oasis
This is the waterfall which really was much like an Oasis and so beautiful.

Oh my
We voted, and we are very sure that this is the world's smallest banana.

Comments

[Shawna]

Whiskey
Ok I thought the sour toe cocktail in Dawson City was bad - the snake would do me in. Any bottles with frogs in them?